Armored Core 6 is an amazing dress up game and decal creator, with a neat little minigame in it that lets you actually fight with the mechs you're decorating.
Jokes aside, the game's decal editor is shockingly versatile. While it comes with a limited number of pieces, you've got over 100 layers to work with—you can resize and change the colour of your building blocks, and even turn them into gradients for some fancy shading. I've spent hours crafting cursed bumper stickers for my Gundam—including a truly rancid set of Sailor Moon anime eyes that I'm now contractually obliged to use on every mech I pilot. Handler Walter makes the rules, not me.
Unsurprisingly, the community's been seized by that same desire to create—crafting everything from genuine works of art to what I can only assume are attempts at psychological warfare. Here are some of my favourites so far, courtesy of the Armored Core subreddit.
First off—yes, user MortimerMcMire has already made Pickle Rick. If I saw a weapons platform with 20 missiles primed boosting towards me, looking like this, I think I would probably just shut my mech down and let death take me.
I turned myself into a mechsuit, Morty! I'm Armored Core Rick!!!!! from r/armoredcore
YambagMcgee's horrifying rendition of Pepsi Man is here to make sure you're properly hydrated during all of those sweaty arena simulations. How considerate.
PEPSIMAN! from r/armoredcore
I feel a raw, existential kind of dread at the sight of eattoes2000's rendition of Mr. Krabs. Granted, Armored Core 6's world is plagued by mega-corporations, so I do think Mr. Krabs would be at the top of the food chain.
OH YEAH MR KRABS (AAAAA) from r/armoredcore
The planet Rubicon 3 is a dark, dystopian husk, filled with mercenary groups and megacorporations—so this McDonald's-branded war crime (named the 'Big Mech' by surroundlive_) is actually setting-accurate.
Call sign: Big Mech from r/armoredcore
It's not all cursed, though. There have been some genuine works of art on Rubicon 3's illicit decal black market—like this Evangelion tribute by user Calewhale.
Another Evangelion Emblem from r/armoredcore
User appleby103's rendition of a painterly Malenzo icon from Monster Hunter genuinely looks like someone went at the side of their mech with a paint brush.
Malzeno Icon, Monster Hunter from r/armoredcore
A crossover decal by CircuitVet sees the art for Cyberpunk 2077's song 'Chippin' In' by SAMURAI recreated in all its glory. Aside from being a setting-appropriate reference, this cover tribute is genuinely close to the real deal.
Chippin' In from r/armoredcore
If it weren't for the fact that this emblem's available for use, I'd be suspicious that Cosmixian's pin-up girl was drawn with a tablet or something. But nope—surely enough, this is built out of fully in-game techno wizardry.
These are fun to make from r/armoredcore
Considering Armored Core 6's been out for less than a week, I'm excited (and slightly terrified) of what the community's going to produce in the future. While Rubicon 3 might be a war-stricken corporate hellscape, blasted by artillery shells and haunted by the husks of incinerated cities, it seems the player base is determined to make it as colourful—and as cursed—as humanly possible.
